A very early start, eating breakfast and checking out of our hotel for a 7AM bus to the ferry terminal – the broad daylight helps ;)
All of our ferry tickets have our names on them (very cool to the Singers). We board the enormous Tallink Superstar! Some enjoy the deck, many enjoy a card game in the huge lounge or exploring the 5 floors of the ferry.
Arriving in ancient Tallinn is wonderful – we get to meet Aime Mark, our representative from the BaltoScandia tour company, in person at the terminal. Our guide Katrin is super, giving us a tour of the upper and lower Old Town and telling us very interesting stories about the towers Fat Margaret and Tall Herman! Helsinki is probably 500 years younger than Tallinn, so we see totally different sights and architecture. A GREAT view from the top of the highest hill looks out on the many red roofs of Old Town.
We also visit the famous Singing Festival grounds (also the site of the Singing Revolution in the 1980s), where 25,000 singers performed for over 90,000 audience members just last week. How cool is that?!?
Lunch is fun in lower Old Town, wandering in small groups through the old streets, trying delicious food, and enjoying/buying the interesting Estonian crafts and souvenirs.
Then a sleepy bus ride (with a brief rainstorm) south through the Estonian countryside to Pärnu for the 6th annual Europa Cantat junior Festival, where we see several choruses walking in gaggles. Checking in at the Concert Hall, we get our passes, nametags, Open Sing songbooks, and programs – there’s the AYS name in print! We meet our cute, wonderful translator/companions Hannele and Eveliis – thank goodness we have them :)
Our communal soup dinner is followed by a fun Estonian choral and dance performance in the outside amphitheatre in Beach Park. 900 Singers are attending from Catalunya, other parts of Spain, France, Belgium, Estonia, and Taiwan!!
Our hotel is much more rustic than our Finnish one, fitting with the summer vacation town atmosphere, and is situated on the edge of Pärnu’s Old Town. It is also right next to a big late-night bar with live music (Linda Ronstadt’s Blue Bayou, as sung in Estonian by a man with an almost-Willie Nelson accent, anyone?) – we may be passing out earplugs to our Singers for the rest of the week! ;)
Tomorrow, our first Atelier to rehearse the Cyrillus Kreek Reekviem with conductor Tõnu Kaljuste!
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